UK Court Bans Teen's Insults From Web

First-of-its-kind order forbids him to post abusive comments
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 7, 2007 3:29 PM CST
UK Court Bans Teen's Insults From Web
British police are cracking down on the internet use of at least one young man.   (Getty Images)

A British court has put a low-tech law to high-tech use in a bid to keep a teenager from writing abusive comments about police on the internet. The court issued an Anti-Social Behavior Order—usually used to keep hooligans out of certain parts of town—against a 17-year-old to prevent him from posting more anti-police diatribes on the Bebo social networking site, Time reports.

Police said the teen, also charged with stealing a car and possessing marijuana, mocked local bobbies on his Bebo page and invited readers to add comments. Now he's banned from “publishing any material on the world wide web that is threatening, abusive, or insulting.” But cops are already having enforcement trouble: The poster’s set his profile to "private." (More Bebo stories.)

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